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Glengariff Group, treasurer’s race: 33-29-8

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Illinois
Polls

In the race for state treasurer, the poll shows Democrat Alexi Giannoulias leading Republican state Sen. Christine Radogno 33 percent to 29 percent but that is within the 4 percentage point statistical margin of error. Green Party candidate Dan Rodriguez Schlorff polled 8 percent. […]

Burnham said Giannoulias began airing television ads in the Chicago area and in central Illinois Monday, and plans to air them statewide starting next week and running through the election.

Radogno said she was “thrilled” with the latest poll results because she has yet to start airing TV commercials.

I’ll post some trends on this a little later this morning.

posted by Rich Miller
Tuesday, Oct 17, 06 @ 8:19 am

Comments

Headline correction: 33-29-8

Looks like Schlorff is catching on…the last poll had him at, what, 1 or 2%?

Comment by M.V. Tuesday, Oct 17, 06 @ 8:43 am
Debate at the City Club today

Comment by Anonymous Tuesday, Oct 17, 06 @ 8:46 am
Go Christine.

Even if you disregard Alexi’s bank’s, well, ethics problems, Christine is clearly the better qualified.

Alexi will be using the office of Treasurer as a springboard to the governorship or a senate seat.
He’ll ignore Blago [well, maybe that’s good] and Madigan and use his Obama connections to build a local power base. He’ll also ignore the Treasurer’s office.

Christine is far more likely to actually do the work required to develop an outstanding Treasurer’s office.

Comment by Cassandra Tuesday, Oct 17, 06 @ 8:56 am
Anyone know who paid for this poll?

Comment by Real Clear Tuesday, Oct 17, 06 @ 10:01 am
Cassandra - could you please describe how Christine is better qualified? Thanks!

Comment by Way Northsider Tuesday, Oct 17, 06 @ 10:05 am
This is another race (added to Cook County Prez) where this dissatisfied Dem will be going GOP.

Comment by Niles Township Tuesday, Oct 17, 06 @ 10:21 am
I honestly don’t see where the Giannoulias bank has done anything illegal. Banking is a heavily regulated business so if they were breaking the law, there would be law enforcement involved. Lending to less than savory businesses? Of course, it is, after all, their business to make loans, whether that loan goes to build a gent’s club or a dairy, the most important question is whether the business plan is sound so the bank can get its money back.

Comment by cermak_rd Tuesday, Oct 17, 06 @ 10:47 am
Christine is better qualified than Giannoulais because she has already demonstrated an ability to seperate criminals from businesspeople. You don’t want a Treasurer as tainted as Giannoulais.

We don’t need him. Send him back and wait until he grows up to run for office again. If he is such hot stuff, we can wait.

As for the race, it is clear that Christine is closing in for the kill. With the race thisclose, and no TV ads yet, she can win this.

It looks like the ladies will be the only republicans in statewide office.

Comment by VanillaMan Tuesday, Oct 17, 06 @ 12:22 pm
Vanilla Man - I was asking for specific experience Christine has, not a rant against her opponent. Cassandra said Christine is better qualified and I asked for her qualifications and why they are better for this office. I am happy to take a response from you, Cassandra or anyone else but I am NOT looking for your opinion on why Alexi is bad, just why Christine is good. Thanks!

Comment by Way Northsider Tuesday, Oct 17, 06 @ 12:58 pm
She has extensive experience in local and state government including holding various trustee positions at the local level and serving as a state senator for nearly a decade. In the senate, she has served on various appropriations committees and thus gained frontline experience on state fiscal issues. She is not suggesting there are magic solutions for all the state’s fiscal problems but clearly understands their breadth and complexity. There is no evidence that she considers wild deficit spending and plundering of state assets as viable solutions for Illinois. And she seems to really want to be Treasurer.

She was a social worker in her early career and perhaps can use the Treasurer bully pulpit to advance the reform of lavishly funded yet badly run state social agencies such as DHS and DCFS with an eye towards bringing them back to their original missions (from their current missions as patronage farms for the guv).

Alexi’s experience, as I understand it, is a few years working for his dad at the family bank.
There is no evidence he wants to be Treasurer.
He wants to be governor or senator and Treasurer is simply a boring but necessary step along the way.

Christine will do the work.

Comment by Cassandra Tuesday, Oct 17, 06 @ 1:43 pm
“There is no evidence he wants to be Treasurer.
He wants to be governor or senator and Treasurer is simply a boring but necessary step along the way.”

Is that the latest rumor the Radogno camp is passing along? I guess if my campaign was in the shape Radogno’s is in, I’d do the same thing. “Hey, the other guy is ambitious, vote for me”.

As for there is no evidence he wants to be Treasurer, you do realize that he is running for the office right? He ran in a heated primary that he easily could have lost. His salary as Treasurer will be less than what it was at the bank. I would say that’s pretty good evidence he wants to be Treasurer right there. Again, I guess when you don’t actually have evidence he wants to be governor or anything else; you fall back on “There is no evidence he wants the job he is fighting for”.

Now Radogno was selected by her party to run for Treasurer, she is running during her Senate term so she will keep that seat even if she loses, she will get a pay raise if she wins (from what I understand), and she has gone from office to office rising up the ladder. Why if it seems anyone wants to use the Treasurer’s office as a stepping stone it would be Radogno! Whereâ€™s her pledge that this will the last office she ever runs for? As for the ‘evidence’ line, it should work great against Christine’s State Senate opponent in ‘08 (As well as the rest of the Republican statewide ticket who will all keep their current jobs even if they lose). “Clearly there is no evidence she wants to be State Senator, she even ran for another office!”

Everything else you said about Radognoâ€™s experience were good points. Why you had to attack Alexi at the end without good information is beyond me. I guess you are afraid that Christineâ€™s record isnâ€™t good enough to stand on its own.

Comment by Tweed Tuesday, Oct 17, 06 @ 2:36 pm
Nice Rant Tweed.

Since we’ve given Radogno’s qualifications for the office, let me now give Giannoulias’ qualifications:

(sound of crickets).

Looks like its Radogno folks!

Comment by Jaded Tuesday, Oct 17, 06 @ 2:48 pm
From what I can tell Alexi has it in the experience category as far as the Treasurer’s office is concerned.

Comment by Way Northsider Tuesday, Oct 17, 06 @ 4:34 pm
I’m not a Christine campaign staffer under cover.

I’m a real average citizen and and an independent voter.
I’ve never worked on a campaign.

I’m not “attacking” Alexi. I think he’s a wealthy lightweight with large political ambitions. I think the Illinois Treasurer’s office, for him, is a necessary but tedious
step toward’s higher office.

Comment by Cassandra Tuesday, Oct 17, 06 @ 5:35 pm
Jaded,

You can’t find anything wrong with my comment so you call it a ‘rant’ and then you say that Giannoulias’s qualifications are the sounds of crickets. I guess that’s one way to have a thoughtful intelligent conversation on the political issues of the day.

Giannoulias has more banking experience and Radogno has more legislative experience. If for some reason you don’t find Giannoulias’ experience to be relevant than by all means vote Radogno. Experience is only part of the reason why I’m voting for Alexi. He has good ideas including using E-bay to auction unclaimed items and giving businesses incentives to use ethanol fuel. He has been endorsed by upstanding organizations like Citizen Action and IVI-IPO and upstanding officials like Senator Barack Obama and State Rep John Fritchey. We could go on and on and list Radogno’s endorsements, ideas and (and they probably appeal to Republicans just as much as Alexi appeals to Democrats), but what I think anyone can find interesting about Alexi is that if he is elected he will be the only statewide office holder who got there essentially without the help of his/her statewide party. That is very unique in Illinois and I think will make for good reform in our state.

Comment by Tweed Tuesday, Oct 17, 06 @ 5:47 pm
Christine is a horrible candidate. And she cant raise money. She’ll lose by 7%

Comment by Jane Conway Tuesday, Oct 17, 06 @ 6:29 pm
I agree with Senator Obama, Alexi Giannoulias is one of the finest young men I have ever met. Giannoulias by 14% November 7.

Comment by (618) Democrat Tuesday, Oct 17, 06 @ 8:53 pm
Tweed, more incentives for ethanol, aka ADM, is about the last thing this State needs. They’re great if you’re the big A and maybe OK if you’re a farmer, but the rest of us are getting hosed, so to speak, by a hugely subsidized and inferior automotive fuel that will never succeed in a free market.

The State’s banker should stay out of social investing in the first place and put the taxpayers’ money in good, sound investments. Using State investments to give more ethanol subsidies is just another reason to not vote for Alexi.

Comment by Arthur Andersen Tuesday, Oct 17, 06 @ 9:13 pm
Somebody I know from online (who may even be reading this) and who is associated with the Alexi campaign is saying that Obama has already cut general election tv spots for Alexi but that the campaign is so far ahead that they will not even need it.

So, is this person just crapping me with that claim that Obama would not even be necessary to ensure the election and more importantly, could Obama be that dumb to stick with this kid?

Comment by Establishment Republican Tuesday, Oct 17, 06 @ 10:06 pm
For everyone claiming Christine is the better candidate, watch the replay of the debate on Saturday (on CAN TV). Giannoulias was clearly the one with ideas and the one that sounded like he knew how the Treasurer’s office can work.

For all the experience Radogno has, her campaign in pathetic. She actually is sounding a bit like Mangieri (”I’ll hire people who really know how to invest”). Also, she is starting to sound like a joke with her references to organized crime (she admitted she had no proof whatsoever).

Christine had better be careful. . .it doesn’t seem like her team (or the Chicago Tribune) has done its homework on the background of her donors.

Comment by John 3:16 Wednesday, Oct 18, 06 @ 12:53 am